New Tiers Active / Patreon Fee News (Patreon)

Hey everyone! The new tiers are active as of ten minutes ago. We'll see how they stack up. But also, you may have heard the news (or the panic) that Patreon is changing its fee system on December 18th. Shorthand, the processing fee, which we creators originally paid through our earnings, will be charged with each Patron's pledge instead. Now we'll earn 90-95% instead of the typical 80-85%. 

This means every pledge everyone makes will now be charged an additional 2.9%, plus 35 cents. So, a $1.00 pledge costs $1.38, a $5.00 pledge costs $5.50, a $15.00 pledge costs $15.78, and a $30.00 pledge costs $31.22, if I did my math right. This applies to every pledge, individually. So if you make 10 different pledges of $1.00, suddenly you're spending $13.80 instead. 

The reasons I'm hearing for this are mixed. Patreon says it's to give creators more of a cut, which it does. Detractors say it's to give Patreon's shareholders more revenue, which it also does. Personally I can't be upset at the extra income, but this isn't a good look. They've not put out a good statement on it and asked us, the creators, to do the PR and damage control. There's also no option for us to not do this, which, since I didn't have any objection with the old system, I'd rather have kept. 

So I'll be frank: if this is a dealbreaker for you on Patreon and would keep you from pledging, I understand. Don't go broke on my account. However, your continued support is invaluable, and if you'll be leaving but would still like to help me out, I have a Ko-Fi that I just made this week. I'll be sticking with Patreon for the foreseeable future, but if things really don't work out, I'll let you all know. Thanks for all your patience and support.